eMailing photos has limitations. You can't send more than a few unless you resize them drastically. And when you do, they cannot reasonably be printed by your recipient anymore!
Besides, often when you want to send photos (the product of an assignment, or a holiday), you want to send dozens. At least. Sometimes even hundreds. And since eMail is not an option, what do you do?
Here are a few options, all FREE:
1)* *you can upload single photos to 'service-websites' like
http://www.putfile.com/. You'll get a URL for it that you can mail to your recipient, who can then go and download that pic when it suits them.
This method is not practical for more than a few photos.
2)* *however, if you're a pro and need a permanent system for uploading HUGE files (zipped photo archives, etc.) – gigabytes in size if need be – use 'FTP' (File Transfer Protocol).
So, what is 'FTP' (File Transfer Protocol)'?
Check
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...n&q=define:FTP for explanations.
Then goto
http://www.versiontracker.com/, enter 'FTP' in the search field, choose your operating system and hit Enter. Download one or a couple of those apps, install, and away you go!
3)* *The easiest way – for the rest of us – to transfer HUGE files (zipped photo archives, etc.) is to use
http://www.yousendit.com/. Very simple.
CAVEAT (for OSX-users?): although
http://www.yousendit.com/ says it can handle files/zip-archives up to 1GB, only files/zip-archives UNDER 150MB got through sofar in my tests using Safari and InternetExplorer.
FireFox, however, DID deliver my testfiles of upto 671MB!
TIP 1:
if your connection is severed during one of those long uploads, don't despair. Simply re-establish your connection and click yousendit's upload window to reactivate the upload. Although that resumption may take up to 10 minutes, the upload WILL resume and pick up exactly where it left off.
TIP 2:
ask your recipient for confirmation that they've downloaded your file succesfully, because yousendit's 'confirmation messages' canNOT be trusted! Sometimes it says a transfer went well, while in reality nothing was received by the recipient!
But when it works, it's GREAT!
No resizing neccessary! Lot of time saved! Max size photo files = max quality prints!
Have fun and good luck,
RS
P.S.* *Zipping JPG's to compress them makes no sense, because JPG is a compressed graphical files format already. JPG's therefore cannot be compressed/zipped any further. No gain there.
Making a zip-archive, however, can make sense, as it serves to group a number of photos together into one big file.
P.S.2* *Want to make sure no 'others' can unzip your archive(s)? Zip it/them with a password!
(Set it in the preferences of your zip application).